CBP Says There’s Been a 370% Increase in Family Apprehensions Along Southwest Border Since Last Year

A new media release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published on Tuesday said that “the U.S. Border Patrol has seen a more than 370% increase in the number of family units apprehended compared to the same time period in FY2018.” It also noted that “60% of apprehensions along the Southwest border are family units and unaccompanied children, made up predominantly of individuals from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.”

That information was part of a larger release that shared CBP’s latest data on total apprehensions and people who were deemed as inadmissible. A CBP apprehension is defined as “the physical control or temporary detainment of a person who is not lawfully in the U.S., which may or may not result in an arrest.” CBP defines “inadmissibles” as “individuals encountered at ports of entry who are seeking lawful admission into the United States but are determined to be inadmissible, individuals presenting themselves to seek humanitarian protection under our laws, and individuals who withdraw an application for admission and return to their countries of origin within a short timeframe.”

According to CBP, in March “92,607 people were apprehended between ports of entry on the Southwest Border, compared with 66,884 in the month of February and 47,984 in January.”

Of those 92,607 apprehensions, 53,077 were family units, 8,975 were unaccompanied minors and 30,555 were single adults. When Latino Rebels asked CBP if it had a gender breakdown of those 30,555 single adults, a spokesperson said that the agency does not track apprehensions by gender. (NOTE: Yearly reports from CBP have gender categories, but do not classify by single adults.) Including the 10,885 inadmissibles, CBP’s report said that a total of 103,492 individuals were either apprehended or deemed as inadmissible.

“We are currently experiencing a system-wide emergency in our processing and holding facilities. The humanitarian crisis created by a massive influx of family groups and unaccompanied children in recent months has forced CBP to reallocate resources away from law enforcement, trade and travel missions to process and provide care for those in our custody,” said CBP Deputy Commissioner Robert E. Perez said in the statement. “The impacts to legitimate trade and travel cannot be overstated. As this crisis continues to worsen, it undermines CBP’s ability to perform its dual mission of protecting our borders and facilitating legitimate trade and travel.”

The CBP release also added that “through the first six months of FY19,” it “has encountered 104 large groups composed of 100 or more individuals totaling 17,242 apprehensions. In comparison, U.S. Border Patrol encountered 13 large groups in FY2018 and two in FY2017.”

UPDATE, APRIL 9, 6:15pmET: Latino Rebels followed up with CBP again about if it can provide a gender percentage of the March single adults apprehensions. A CBP spokesperson said the following: “What we have posted in our monthly Southwest Border Migration summaries is the extent of what we currently have available at this time. For anything beyond that you can file a FOIA request via the following portal: www.foiaonline.gov/foiaonline/action/public/home.”